Internet Providers: Rogers vs Bell

I was looking at internet options for when I move out. The two major companies around here are Bell Sympatico and Rogers ...who offer fairly similar services.

What I want to know... is what do I really need? I tend to watch TV off the internet (Comedy Central Website) as well as YouTube videos and I play games like Counter Strike online.

What kind of download/upload speeds should I be looking at getting? I want smooth, flawless performance, but I dont want to pay for something insane if I dont need it.

Is 2 Mbps enough on download? Or should I be looking closer to the 7 Mbps?
I think more importantly for playing online games, what should I be looking for as a minimal upload rate? 800 Kbps maybe?.... would something like 512 be enough?

bell is horrible and pathetic, W5 did speed tests, downloading the same file on several of the major providers. most took 10 minutes to download, bell still hadn't finished by the end of the one hour show. when asked about it on tcv they said it may have been the area they tried it in, W% responded well did you tell the people when they signed up they were i na bad area.......... no response.

mine is advertised as 750K up and 5M down and when i tested it i got about 640K up and 4.5M down, i am happy with that. i did this for a friend who has bell with a very similar plan ( price and numbers ) and got 160K up and under 1M down, needless to say he has switched providers.

i think your best bet would be to find a couple of friends who have both and go online, there are sites that will test your download speed for free.

down here rogers is good too, i just don't think bells antiquated systems can handle it but that won't stop them advertising ( of course with a little "* up to" )

i am interested in hearing others results, i will post a link to the speed test site i use.

PS and those upload speeds are fine as long as you aren't trying to host as a server.

hum, interesting. thanks for that info a4twenty. Generally, which area are you located in? I assume its not near Ottawa since your sig says 'Southern Ontario'?

So essentially, I like the Bell packages for price and what they deliever. But from what I understand, Bell's actual connection speed will vary from location to location, correct? So i should test my connection from home to find out the actual speed.

Rogers, I suppose is more of a sure-shot... where I'll have actual speeds closer to the advertised speed, no matter where I am in the city. ..is that about right?

its two different types of services.. one is cable.. they other is dsl.
cable will be faster.. while a good dsl will have a faster ping time so better for gaming. try for sure.. it will depend on your distance to your central office.
dsl is usually restricted to ~4.5 km to its CO, while cable is usually 5 times that. dsl does not get congested when neighbours dl at the same time.. but cables have added alot of bandwith lately to help with that and its not that noticeable anymore. As you guessed.. i'm with Bell... and have had great service throught the years.. ( ~7 years now ). I also have all of their other services which is great when you consider the savings when you bundle all your things into one bill. also.. expressvu hd is not comparable to roger's hd. Bell being the clear winner. more channels & because of the compression cables have to use to get the hd over the wire. you loose 35% of the image.

Ya, I will be bundling my tv and internet, and this will greatly effect my choice of tv provider as well.

Bell is clearly the winner on paper. It costs less, I get better speeds, I get more channels and apparently better HD quality. BUT I have to be within 4.5 km's of the central office ... so that kinda blows.

Liv, thanks for the info. But why did you immediately say that cable will be faster? According to the numbers, DSL should be quicker, assuming Im on a good place on the network.

when i mean quicker i mean is total download speeds... kb/sec
rogers i believe offers upto 20mbps and videotron is now offering 50mbps.
while Sympatico offers upto 7mbps. I have 5 here and its plenty for me.. i dont dl much.. but i do stream music and play games online all the time and its great at that. I believe my limit is 30g down and 30g up.. or something like that.

watch out for download limits, they have all started to track everyone's downloads so either get unlimited packages or track what you dl